Court overturns death sentence

The California Supreme Court, which upholds nearly 90% of the death sentences it reviews, decided unanimously Monday to overturn the capital sentence of a convicted Riverside County murderer, because the trial court improperly excused the only juror holding out for life without possibility of parole.

In a ruling written by Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, the state high court said the trial judge was not justified in removing the sole African American juror considering the sentencing of Lester Harland Wilson, a black man the jury had already convicted of murder, torture and kidnapping.

The court said there was too little evidence to support the trial judge’s finding that the African American juror’s holdout was racially biased.

The black juror had initially voted for death but changed his mind, the court said. He told fellow jurors that as an African American, he could understand how an unstable, troubled upbringing could lead someone to make a terrible mistake.

The high court said it was permissible for a juror to weigh evidence through his or her life experience when deciding whether a person should live or die.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Alana Cohen Butler said Riverside County prosecutors planned to retry the penalty phase before a new jury.

Patrick Morgan Ford, Wilson’s attorney, said he would oppose a retrial and argue that Wilson’s sentence should be modified to life without possibility of parole.

-- Maura Dolan